Boxing and The Boss: If you couldn`t get tickets for Bruce...

August 07, 1985|By Skip Myslenski & Linda Kay.

Boxing and The Boss: If you couldn`t get tickets for Bruce Springsteen`s Soldier Field concert Friday, you might try catching him in Las Vegas on Sept. 21. No, he won`t be performing. He has bought 20 ringside seats at $500 a pop to that night`s Larry Holmes-Michael Spinks heavyweight championship fight at the Riviera Hotel. . . . While we`re on Holmes: If he defeats Spinks, he`ll match Rocky Marciano`s mark of 49 victories without a defeat. Then look for him to go for record-breaking No. 50 in Hawaii on Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, against Chicago`s Alfonzo Ratliff, the WBC cruiserweight champ. Ratliff faces 10th-ranked cruiserweight Bernard Benton on the Holmes-Spinks undercard in a bout many consider a tune-up for Ratliff`s December date with destiny. . . . While we`re on Springsteen: Chicago middleweight John Collins obviously has a fixation with rock and roll`s newest icon. Last Friday--the day before Collins captured the United States Boxing Association`s middleweight title with a victory over Mark Holmes--he showed up for a taping with NBC wearing a Springsteen T-shirt. ``Can you get me Springsteen tickets?`` he asked network publicist Kevin Monaghan. Saturday, just moments after Collins knocked out Holmes, Monaghan jumped into the ring and was spotted by the winner. What was the first thing the boxer said? Yep. ``What about those Springsteen tickets?`` . . . Back to Holmes: NBC telecast the Collins-Mark Holmes fight as a favor to the loser`s older brother, who just happens to be the heavyweight champ. Why? In hopes of winning his favor and getting the telecast rights to the aforementioned Larry Holmes-Spinks bout. Didn`t work. Holmes will defend his title on HBO.

ON HOLD

A lengthy baseball impasse would leave the White Sox with a stockpile of giveaways for what was supposed to be a lengthy homestand. Commemorative baseball cards that were to be distributed Tuesday to the first 15,000 fans through the gates will now gather dust for an indeterminant time. Then there are those 15,000 pairs of beach sandals that are scheduled to be passed out to men on Friday, as well as those 15,000 Thermoses that are going to be given to kids on Saturday. Oh, well. Those can be offered at a later date. What has the Sox really concerned are the boxes filled with father-son-daughter uniforms for the family game on Sunday.